1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to a card recognition system that a allows a non-PCMCIA-standard card such as a smart card to be recognized as a PCMCIA-standard card, more particularly, to an improvement of a converter, which is provided in a card adaptor or a computer in the card recognition system and enables use of a non-PCMCIA-standard card as a PCMCIA-standard card.
PCMCIA is an abbreviation of Personal Computer Memory Card International Association.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional card recognition system includes an adapter for connecting a non-PCMCIA-standard card, such as a smart card having an irregular connector that is not compliant with the PCMCIA standard, to a PC-card connector, and a converter for allowing a computer to recognize the non-PC card connected to the adapter as a PC card to allow the non-PC card to be used with a computer having a connector for a PCMCIA-standard card. The adapter includes an active adapter or a passive adapter.
The active adapter includes the above-described converter. In a card recognition system that employs the active adapter, a computer does not need to include a special circuit for recognizing a non-PC card such as a smart card.
On the other hand, the passive adapter internally translates the assignment of signal pins of a smart card into that of a PC card, and does not include a converter.
Thus, in a card recognition system that employs the passive adapter, a computer must include a detector that detects a connection of a passive adapter for smart card, and a converter that is activated when a connection of the passive adapter is detected by the detector and converts data output from the smart card into data for a PC card.
Now, the configuration and problems of a conventional converter will be described in the context of an exemplary card recognition system that employs an active adapter.
FIG. 11 is an exemplary diagram showing a smart card 1, which is a non-PC card, a computer 3, and an active adapter 10, forming a card recognition system S4 for the smart card 1.
The computer 3 includes a chipset 4 having a PCI (Peripheral Components Interconnect) bus B1, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 5, a memory 6, a hard disk 7 connected to the chipset 4, and a PC-card controller 8 for recognizing a PCMCIA-compliant PC card. Also, the computer 3 has a PC-card connector 2 that is connected to the PC-card controller 8.
The smart-card active adapter 10 has a contact connector 16 associated with a contact terminal surface la of the smart card 1, and a female connector 10b associated with a PC-card male connector 2 of the computer 3. Also, the smart-card active adapter 10 includes a converter C2, provided between the contact connector 16 and the female connector 10b, which converts data output from a smart card, which is a non-PC card, into data for a PC card and that outputs the data to the computer side.
The converter C2 includes a PC-card interface 11 that exchanges data with the PC-card controller 8 via the connector 2, a CPU 12, a RAM 13, a ROM 14, and a smart-card controller 15, which exchange data with the interface 11 via a bus B2.
The smart-card controller functions as a data converter for smart card in this patent application.
When the smart card 1 is connected to the smart-card contact connector 16, the smart-card controller 15 detects the connection and notifies the CPU 12 of the connection. The CPU 12 outputs information from the smart card 1 to the PC-card controller 8 of the computer 3 via the PC-card interface 11.
The flow of data from the smart card 1 to the computer 3 is as follows. Data from the smart card 1 is stored in an FIFO unit 15a included in the smart-card controller 15. The FIFO unit 15a functions as a buffer memory for absorbing a difference in data processing speed between the smart card 1 and a PC card. Upon detecting that data is stored in the FIFO unit 15a, the CPU 12 reads the data stored in the FIFO unit 15a and saves the data in the work RAM 13. The CPU 12 notifies the PC-card controller 8 of the computer 3 via the PC-card interface 11 and the connector 2, using an interrupt signal, that data has been received from the smart card 1, and outputs the data stored in the RAM 13 to the PC-card controller 8 by a similar procedure.
The data stored in the RAM 13 is temporarily held in a register 11a in the PC-card interface 11 before it is output.
The flow of data from the computer 3 to the smart-card 1 is as follows.
The host CPU 5 in the computer 3 outputs data stored in the memory 6 to the connector 2 via the chipset 4, the PCI bus B1, and the PC-card controller 8. Upon receiving data via the connector 2, the PC-card interface 11 temporarily stores transmission data in the internal register 11a. Upon detecting that the transmission data is stored in the register 11a, the CPU 12 writes the transmission data to the work RAM 13 via a data bus B2. The CPU 12 writes the data written to the RAM 13 to the FIFO unit 15a in the smart-card controller 15. The smart-card controller 15 outputs the data written to the FIFO unit 15a to the smart card 1 via the contact connector 16. Programs that are executed by the CPU 12 are all stored in a flash ROM 14.
The converter C2 included in the smart-card active adapter 10 includes the CPU 12, the work RAM 13, and the flash ROM 14 for exchanging data between the PC-card interface 11 and the smart-card controller 15, resulting in the problem that the circuitry scale is large.
Furthermore, as described earlier, in the converter C2, data output from the smart card 1 is stored in the FIFO unit 15a in the smart-card controller 15, the work RAM 13, and the register 11a of the PC-card interface 11 in order, and is then output to the computer 3. Thus, the efficiency of data transmission is low.
Furthermore, since the flash ROM 14 included in the converter C2 is manufactured by a process that is different from a process for manufacturing ordinary CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor), the number of manufacturing steps is large and manufacturing cost is high. This is also true in a case where an EEPROM (Electronically Erasable and Programmable Read Only Memory) is used instead of a flash ROM.
According to another type of related art, a notebook computer has a plurality of (e.g., two) connectors for connecting PCMCIA-compliant PC cards. Furthermore, some computers of the above type include a smart-card controller for recognizing a smart card connected to one of the PC-card connectors via a passive adapter.
FIG. 12 is an exemplary diagram showing a configuration of a conventional card recognition system S5.
The card recognition system S5 has two PC-card connectors 110 and 111. Also, the card recognition system S5 includes a computer 200 including a PC-card controller 150, and a smart-card passive adapter 120 for connecting a smart card, which is a non-PC card, to the connector 110 or 111.
The computer 200 includes a chipset 101, a host CPU 102, a memory 103, a hard disk (HDD) 104, provided around the chipset 101, and a PC-card controller 150.
The PC-card controller 150 includes a first controller 152 and a second controller 157 respectively associated with the two PC-card connectors 110 and 111, and has a PCI interface 151.
The first and second controllers 152 and 157 are configured identically to each other, so that description will be directed only to the configuration of the first controller 152, with reference numerals of the corresponding parts of the second controller 157 in parentheses.
A card detector 154 (159) outputs information of a card connected to the connector 110 (111) to a PC-card controlling device 153 (158).
When a smart card 130 is connected via the passive adapter 120, the card detector 154 (159) outputs a high-level smart-card enable signal SCEN1 (SCEN2) to a multiplexer (MUX) 156 (161).
On the other hand, when a PC card 140 is connected, the card detector 154 (159) outputs a low-level smart-card enable signal SCEN1 (SCEN2) to the multiplexer 156 (161).
The multiplexer 156 (161) makes the smart-card controller 155 (160) to act between the smart card 130 and the PC-card controller 153 (158) when a high-level smart-card enable signal SCEN1 (SCEN2) is being input, while connecting the PC card 140 directly to the PC-card controller 153 (158) when a low-level smart-card enable signal SCEN1 (SCEN2) is being input.
According to a survey of actual usage of notebook computers having two PC-card connectors, two smart cards are seldom used simultaneously, and typical usage is such that a smart card for personal identification is connected to one of the two PC-card connectors and a wireless LAN card or a modem card is connected to the other PC-card connector. In this type of usage, the card detector (154 or 159) and the smart-card controller (155 or 160) provided in one of the controllers (152 or 157) are seldom used and are not so useful.
However, if the card detector (154 or 159) and the smart-card controller (155 or 160) are provided only in one of the first and second controllers 152 and 157, there is a case that a PC card already is connected to a connector associated with a smart-card controller when a smart card is to be used. In that case, use of the PC card must once be stopped and the PC card must be replaced to the other connector, resulting in inconvenience.